Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Slow Down Aging and Live Longer


Aging and death is inevitable, but you can slow down the aging process and live longer than the average life expectancy. Research shows that aging and longevity hinges on preventing chronic inflammation. Avoiding sugar/fructose while consuming an antioxidant-rich diet of whole, fresh foods, along with exercise and stress reduction work hand-in-hand to slow down the aging process.
Genetics may play a role in aging and longevity but is NOT the final determining factor for whether you'll live a long healthy life or not. It’s been established that your lifestyle and diet can override genetic predispositions for disease.
U.S. News & World Report explains the causes of premature aging and premature death, and offers some anti-aging tips helping to prevent heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Leading Causes of Premature Aging and Premature Death
Increased insulin levels. Increased insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity has clearly become the leading candidate for premature aging and death. This results from two primary conditions: too much sugar and processed foods, combined with insufficient exercise. Controlling these two factors could eliminate more than 90 percent of:
Sugar molecules are the most damaging of all the molecules capable of inflicting damage in your body. Fructose in particular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that speeds up the aging process. Fructose is a major contributor to:
Glycation End Products (AGEs) Accelerate the Aging Process. AGEs along with oxidation are one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging, and eventually, death. AGEs happen when sugar mixes with proteins and fats to form molecules that promote aging. AGEs are thought to accelerate the aging process by churning out free radicals and promoting inflammation. One way to avoid ingesting AGEs is to turn down the heat when cooking. Limiting the intake of sugar-filled foods in general will also help.
Stress Kills People Prematurely Everyday. Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Stress initiates the release of a variety of hormones that make your pulse race and cause your blood pressure to rise. The hormone cortisol is released to lessen these effects, but also creates problems when it remains chronically elevated.
Antioxidants Combat Free Radicals to Prevent Premature Aging
Free radicals are chemically unstable molecules that attack your cells and damage your DNA. As you age, free radicals aggressive chemical compounds are created as a byproduct of your natural metabolism that damages your DNA. Smoking, consuming processed foods laden with trans fats and other harmful chemical additives, along with chemical exposures, like pesticides, further add to your body's free radical burden. With time, your DNA eventually becomes damaged beyond your body's ability to repair, and once your biological processed fail, you die.
Antioxidants are Important for Your Health and Longevity
Antioxidants continually combat free radicals, which is why a diet high in natural antioxidants is so important for your health and longevity. Antioxidants are abundant in a number of foods, and your BEST bet to get high quality antioxidants is to consume raw fresh organic vegetables and fruits.
Resveratrol appears to be very potent supplement that can also fight against aging and extend lifespan. It is unique among antioxidants because it can cross the blood-brain barrier to help protect your brain and nervous system.
Another important antioxidant is coenzyme Q-10, but more specifically the reduced version, called ubiquinol. Your liver produces CoQ10 and is an essential nutrient for health and longevity, providing energy to every single cell in your body. After age 25, your natural levels of this critical compound begin to decline. CoQ10 is also an absolute necessity if you're on statin drugs as they can quickly deplete your body of CoQ10.
Glutathione (GSH) is another important and underutilized antioxidant. This is one antioxidant you can optimize with proper diet. Increased glutathione levels may actually play a role in stopping telomere shortening. A recent discovery shows increased glutathione levels may play a role in stopping telomere shortening and slowing down the aging process.
People who Live a Anti-Aging Lifestyle Live Longer
Healthy lifestyle strategies can have a significant impact on your longevity by normalizing your insulin and leptin levels. There is no question that optimizing your insulin levels is an absolute necessity if you want to slow down the aging process. This means modifying your diet to avoid excessive amounts of fructose, grains, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients like trans fats.
Additional Anti-Aging Recommendations:
  • Avoid pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year – as an expected side effect of the action of the drug. If you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need any of them in the first place.
  • Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible. This includes toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few. Replace them with non-toxic alternatives.
  • Follow a healthy diet. Natural whole foods, is your first step toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life. Following a Mediterranean-style diet is a good example of one way to avoid inflammation. Other anti-inflammatory foods include turmeric, dark chocolate, and the anti-aging chemical resveratrol.
  • Get antioxidants from good food sources. Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, beans, and artichokes.
  • Go Nuts! An excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and lower your cholesterol, among other things. Coconut oil can be used for all your cooking needs in place of other oils, margarine, butter, or shortening.
  • Up your Omega 3s. Animal based omega-3 fats helps people to live longer. Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthful omega-6 fats is a strong factor in helping people live longer. This typically means increasing your intake of animal based omega-3 fats while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (think trans fats).
  • Control your stress levels. Coping with stress is a major longevity-promoting factor. Stress has a direct impact on inflammation. Developing effective coping mechanisms is a major longevity-promoting factor. Meditation, prayer, physical activity, exercise and having strong social network, are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
  • Get moving. Exercising regularly delays death. Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay your onset of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and falls that lead to hip fracture. Although a lifetime of regular exercise is ideal, it's never too late to start. It's been shown that even individuals in their 70's can substantially increase both strength and endurance with exercise.
  • Optimize your Vitamin D levels. This is a very powerful and inexpensive intervention that can have profound benefits on your health. You can do this for free by careful and safe sun exposure or a therapeutic level of oral vitamin D (typically 5-10,000 units of vitamin D3 for most adults).
  • Get resveratrol from natural sources. Resveratrol is one of the forerunners in the anti-aging pill race, but more than likely, by the time they've manipulated it into a synthetic pill it won't be healthy for you. Instead, get your resveratrol from natural sources, such as whole grape skins and seeds, raspberries, mulberries, and peanuts.
Bottom Line on Premature Aging and Premature Death
Incorporating these healthy lifestyle guidelines will set you on the correct path to optimal health and give you the best chance at slowing the aging process and living a lot longer life.

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